Day 326: Song Of Songs 1-3 | Bible Reading Plan | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hey Bible nerds, this is Dr. Manny
2. 0:02Orango. Welcome to the Bible department
3. 0:04podcast powered by Arma. We are walking
4. 0:08through the entire Bible in a year. You
5. 0:10can go to the description or the bible
6. 0:13department.com to download a reading
7. 0:15plan and join the journey
8. 0:24family. Welcome to day 326.
9. 0:27WE ARE DIVING INTO A BRAND NEW BOOK OF
10. 0:29THE BIBLE. WE ARE diving into Song of
11. 0:32Songs. And today we've got Song of
12. 0:34Songs, chapters 1, 2, and three.
13. 0:38WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TO THE
14. 0:40FREAKY yes book of the Bible. It's going
15. 0:42to be fantastic.
16. 0:44God invented sex. Yes, he did. It's
17. 0:47God's idea. Sex is not the enemy's idea.
18. 0:50Sex is not just what your flesh wants to
19. 0:53do. And for so long in church, we have
20. 0:57perpetuated this demonic idea of purity
21. 1:00culture. And Song of Songs honestly
22. 1:04debunks the entire idea that sex is
23. 1:07dirty, filthy, bad, you know, that there
24. 1:10should be any guilt associated with it.
25. 1:12And so over the next three days, we're
26. 1:14going to dive into this amazing,
27. 1:18awesome, wonderful book of the Bible.
28. 1:22And so if you haven't done the reading,
29. 1:24if you haven't done Song of Songs, uh,
30. 1:27chapters 1, two, and three, and I want
31. 1:30to challenge you to stop the video,
32. 1:32pause the audio, go get the reading
33. 1:35done. You go get the reading done, and
34. 1:38then come back and we're going to dive
35. 1:39in. I'm going to give two big
36. 1:41disclaimers before we jump into our
37. 1:44context clues, our nerdy nuggets, and
38. 1:46then obviously our timeless truth for
39. 1:48the day. The first disclaimer is we have
40. 1:51an entire Song of Songs course on the
41. 1:54Arma platform where I really do walk
42. 1:57through this book chapter by chapter,
43. 1:59verse by verse, line upon line, like
44. 2:02like a a really nerdy deep dive into
45. 2:05Song of Songs. Uh we have a purity
46. 2:07culture course and a Song of Songs
47. 2:09course on the Arma platform. Obviously,
48. 2:12you got to be a subscriber in order to
49. 2:14access that content. So maybe that's
50. 2:17something that you want or maybe you're
51. 2:20like, you know what, I like the free 999
52. 2:22plan. I'll just stick with what you're
53. 2:23doing on the Bible department. Either
54. 2:25way, I'm glad that you are here. Just
55. 2:28wanted to make you aware that if there's
56. 2:31something that we don't cover here in
57. 2:33the next 3 days, we got way more than 3
58. 2:35days worth of content on the library.
59. 2:37And so you may want to check out the
60. 2:39Arma library. All right. Second
61. 2:40disclaimer is that Song of Songs and the
62. 2:45way that the church has engaged with
63. 2:47this one book of the Bible is actually
64. 2:49indicative of a bigger issue that the
65. 2:52church has and that is uh a real disdain
66. 2:57or dislike or maybe even like a denial
67. 3:01of uh humanity like things that are just
68. 3:04human. And so there's a lot of things
69. 3:06that kind of typically or
70. 3:08stereotypically or generally speaking
71. 3:10can make like Christians or church
72. 3:12people uncomfortable. And one of those
73. 3:15is like the humanity of Jesus. We love
74. 3:18talking about the divinity of Jesus. We
75. 3:20start talking about the humanity of
76. 3:22Jesus. I think it makes people
77. 3:23uncomfortable, right? That Jesus, you
78. 3:26know, drank, ate, pooped, peed, like
79. 3:30that Jesus got tired, he went to sleep.
80. 3:32Like I think you know Jesus's humanity
81. 3:35makes us really uncomfortable but also
82. 3:37when we talk about the humanity of the
83. 3:40Bible we get uncomfortable. So anytime
84. 3:42we say yeah this is the word of God
85. 3:45people will say amen. And you're like
86. 3:47yeah but it's also the word of Isaiah
87. 3:48and Jeremiah and Moses and people are
88. 3:50like I don't know about that. And the
89. 3:53same thing is true when we start talking
90. 3:55about sex. People are uncomfortable with
91. 3:58sex and sexuality really because we're
92. 4:01uncomfortable with our own humanity. And
93. 4:04there are two extremes, okay? And God is
94. 4:06trying to help us to avoid both
95. 4:08extremes. And I think that's a big
96. 4:10reason why a book like Song of Songs is
97. 4:12even in the Bible. Is the two extremes
98. 4:14for the human is to either try to act
99. 4:17like an animal or an angel. Okay, these
100. 4:20are two extremes. The secular society
101. 4:23that we live in can be very anim
102. 4:25animalistic. So have sex with whoever
103. 4:27you want. Uh do whatever you want. No
104. 4:30guard rails around sex or sexuality or
105. 4:34sexual expression. Just kind of you can
106. 4:36be an animal. You know, you can you can
107. 4:38indulge all your primal urges. You know,
108. 4:41be an animal. And then in the sacred
109. 4:44world or maybe in the Christian world or
110. 4:46in the religious world, the the emphasis
111. 4:49is be an angel. Be angelic. So act like
112. 4:52your sensual, sexual, fleshly desires
113. 4:55aren't even there. Suppress them, ignore
114. 4:57them. You're an angel. And the reality
115. 5:00is that humans are not animals or
116. 5:03angels. That these two extremes both
117. 5:07have pitfalls. I would say equally uh
118. 5:11damaging pitfalls. The these extremes
119. 5:14are both like really toxic, really
120. 5:17dysfunctional and very very problematic.
121. 5:20Whereas Song of Songs is a celebration
122. 5:24of the sexual uh union and the thrill
123. 5:28and the fun and the excitement of sex
124. 5:32and the pleasure that comes along with
125. 5:35sexual expression in the confines that
126. 5:38God says is uh is is good for his
127. 5:42people. And that's the context of
128. 5:44marriage. And so, you know, for people
129. 5:47who are married, there's no um there's
130. 5:50there's no angelic behavior. We ain't
131. 5:53angels, baby. We going we going to act
132. 5:55like humans and we going to do what
133. 5:57humans do, but we're also not animals.
134. 5:59And extremes are easy. But truth is
135. 6:03found when you hold things in tension.
136. 6:05And I think that's what the book of Song
137. 6:06of Songs is doing. I believe I believe
138. 6:09that's what it's designed to do. And if
139. 6:11we believe that the devil invented sex
140. 6:14or that it's evil or inherently wrong,
141. 6:17man, that creates so many problematic
142. 6:20ideas. Not only did God invent sex, but
143. 6:24that makes me like God way more. I can
144. 6:26rock with a God who could invent
145. 6:29something as awesome and pleasurable and
146. 6:31fun and fantastic as sex. Man, that God,
147. 6:36WHATEVER GOD INVENTED SEX, I'm rocking
148. 6:38with that God. I like that God. Okay,
149. 6:40that sounds like a fun God to me. All
150. 6:42right, God could have made it so that
151. 6:46humans procreate with no pleasure, but
152. 6:48he didn't. He wanted the act of
153. 6:51procreation to be pleasurable. God could
154. 6:54have made it so that food or drinks like
155. 6:57coffee didn't have a taste, but he
156. 7:00created taste buds, okay? Cuz he's a god
157. 7:03of pleasure. And there's nothing wrong
158. 7:05with pleasure. And uh one of the things
159. 7:07that you're going to notice throughout
160. 7:08the book of Song of Songs is that it's
161. 7:10not just about sexuality, but
162. 7:12sensuality. Uh that your senses should
163. 7:16be engaged. The the the eyes, the nose,
164. 7:19the mouth, the ears, um the the feel,
165. 7:23okay? That your senses should be
166. 7:25engaged. And what one of the, you know,
167. 7:28problems with purity culture, it's
168. 7:30almost like if you make people feel like
169. 7:34sex is bad, sex is bad, sex is bad,
170. 7:36don't do it, don't do it, don't do it,
171. 7:37don't do it, don't do it. It and you
172. 7:39just turn all of someone's sexual, you
173. 7:42know, urges off and then it's almost
174. 7:44like you have this unrealistic
175. 7:45expectation that once people get
176. 7:47married, it's just going to flip on and
177. 7:49now it's back. Whereas I know so many
178. 7:52Christian couples where it's like, you
179. 7:55know, they got sold this lie that if
180. 7:58they ignore sex, don't think about it,
181. 8:00you know, just it's bad, it's bad, it's
182. 8:02bad, you know, they got sold this lie
183. 8:04that God's going to bless you with the
184. 8:05best sex life ever, that you're going to
185. 8:07get married and it's going to be
186. 8:09fantastic. And the reality is that I
187. 8:12know a lot of those couples. I've
188. 8:13counseledled a lot of those couples.
189. 8:14I've pastored a lot of those couples
190. 8:16where they got married and it wasn't
191. 8:19awesome. It wasn't fantastic. Actually,
192. 8:22all that messaging of this is bad, this
193. 8:24is bad, this is bad, this is bad has
194. 8:26created an inability in both men and
195. 8:29women for their bodies to even function
196. 8:32the way that God designed them to
197. 8:34function. I know young women who because
198. 8:37of religious idea ideas and because of
199. 8:41purity culture struggle with issues like
200. 8:44vaginismas which means that like your
201. 8:46vagina literally just closes up and
202. 8:49nothing's getting in, nothing's getting
203. 8:50out. Um, and they've had to got married,
204. 8:53realized they they nothing could happen
205. 8:55and had to go get, you know, had to go
206. 8:57seek a therapist and like get healing
207. 9:00because the church's messaging is sex is
208. 9:03bad, sex is bad, sex is bad, sex is bad,
209. 9:05sex is bad. On the other end of the
210. 9:07extreme, you know, that's the angelic,
211. 9:09you know, you're an angel, you're an
212. 9:10angel, you're an angel, you don't have
213. 9:11desires, you don't have desires,
214. 9:12suppress, suppress, suppress, ignore.
215. 9:14Like, that's damaging. That literally
216. 9:16creates damaging effects. I know married
217. 9:19people who are Christians who barely
218. 9:20have sex. They they still they they're
219. 9:23in a they're they're in a relationship
220. 9:26that is sanctioned by God. God is like,
221. 9:29"Go for it. Have fun." And they still
222. 9:32can't get over the guilt or the shame
223. 9:35that they learned in church. Okay. The
224. 9:37other extreme is I know people who, you
225. 9:40know, prior to getting married lived
226. 9:42animalistic lives. just like no guard
227. 9:45rails, no self-control, and you know,
228. 9:48it's like because of the effects of
229. 9:50pornography have now come into marriage
230. 9:53and again being human, they've been
231. 9:56they've acted like animals for so long
232. 9:58that now they don't know how to be
233. 10:00human. And if you act like an angel for
234. 10:02too long, you won't know how to be
235. 10:04human. And if you act like an animal for
236. 10:05too long, you won't know how to be
237. 10:07human. My goal over the next 3 days is
238. 10:10just to quiet down all those animal
239. 10:12urges and quiet down all that angelic
240. 10:16purity culture crap and just kind of
241. 10:18restore humanity. Humanity. You're a
242. 10:21human and you were designed for sex. You
243. 10:24were designed to enjoy sex. You were in
244. 10:27designed God made sex for you. like he
245. 10:30made it so that you could enjoy the
246. 10:34union of becoming one with one person
247. 10:37for one lifetime. That anything outside
248. 10:41of that is outside of God's, you know,
249. 10:43realm desire for you. So, all right, I
250. 10:46only got a couple minutes left and I've
251. 10:48talked a lot. So, those disclaimers took
252. 10:50up a lot of time. Let's actually get to
253. 10:52a context clue and at least a couple of
254. 10:55nerdy nuggets for the day without this
255. 10:57episode getting too too long. I hope
256. 10:58that that's helpful and uh uh let's talk
257. 11:02about our big context through for the
258. 11:04day. So there are four main interpretive
259. 11:07approaches for even looking at a book
260. 11:10like Song of Songs. Now the first one is
261. 11:13probably the one that most of you are
262. 11:15familiar with. Okay? And it's the one
263. 11:17that I'm going to debunk the most. Okay?
264. 11:20So there's four interpretive approaches.
265. 11:22Before you even read the book, you kind
266. 11:24of have to decide how am I going to
267. 11:26interpret this book. Okay? So, I'll give
268. 11:28you the four if you're taking notes.
269. 11:30There's an allegorical approach and uh I
270. 11:33would say that part of the reason that
271. 11:35we allegorize a book like Song of Song
272. 11:37is because sex makes us uncomfortable.
273. 11:39And I'm going to try to help us to fight
274. 11:41the urge to allegorize this book. An
275. 11:44allegorical approach is just going to
276. 11:46make Yahweh the groom, Israel the bride,
277. 11:48or Jesus the groom, and the church the
278. 11:50bride. And none of this is about sex.
279. 11:53None of this is about sexual sexuality
280. 11:55or sensuality and uh it's just all
281. 11:58about, you know, Jesus in the church.
282. 12:01There's a lot of people who preach that
283. 12:03and teach that. I'm going to say that's
284. 12:05nonsense. That's literally not founded
285. 12:08in an academic or scholarly approach to
286. 12:10reading the Bible. That's not
287. 12:12exeetically honoring to the text. That
288. 12:15is a total manipulation of the
289. 12:17scriptures. Anyway, all right. Number
290. 12:18two, there's a cultic approach. This
291. 12:21approach kind of views or this view okay
292. 12:24holds that these are originally
293. 12:26Canaanite mythological erotic poems that
294. 12:29would have been used in their first form
295. 12:32in fertility cults. Okay. And then what
296. 12:35happened is that the the Jewish people
297. 12:38got a hold of this stuff and cleaned it
298. 12:40up and yified it. Okay. This view points
299. 12:44to the fact that there are similar poems
300. 12:46that existed in the cult of Bahal and
301. 12:49Tamuz which were used in sexual
302. 12:52fertility rights as a part of worship.
303. 12:54The idea is that these poems were taken
304. 12:57by the Israelites edited with the
305. 13:00obvious Canaanite pagan elements removed
306. 13:03to create a sanitized Israelite version
307. 13:06to be used in wedding ceremonies. Okay,
308. 13:08so that's that. Okay. uh I don't line up
309. 13:10there but legitimate approach. Okay, so
310. 13:13allegorical approach, cultic approach.
311. 13:16Third, you may be familiar with this
312. 13:17one. Uh we call this the dramatic
313. 13:19approach. Okay, this attempts to create
314. 13:21a plot within this collection of poems.
315. 13:25So the separate erotic poems are in fact
316. 13:28one story of the beloved and the bride.
317. 13:31Okay, this is why in many translations
318. 13:33the text is separated into characters to
319. 13:36give the impression that you are reading
320. 13:37a screenplay. There are two versions of
321. 13:40this drama which either two uh so two
322. 13:44versions okay it's either that there are
323. 13:46two main characters or what is
324. 13:48effectively a love triangle okay those
325. 13:50are the two uh options for the dramatic
326. 13:53approach the first option is a story of
327. 13:56the beloved who could be Solomon who
328. 13:59falls in love with a simple country girl
329. 14:00and brings her back home to the palace
330. 14:04the second is a love story between a
331. 14:06shepherd and a country girl who is then
332. 14:08taken by Solomon to his harum. The girl
333. 14:12ultimately rejects Solomon and returns
334. 14:14to her shepherd lover. In both dramas,
335. 14:17chapter 3:6 to chapter 5:1 is seen as
336. 14:21the wedding and the first night of the
337. 14:22honeymoon. And so is the central part of
338. 14:25the story. This is a very popular view
339. 14:29uh way to view the book especially in
340. 14:31Protestant circles. Uh but there's one
341. 14:34issue with it. An issue that is also
342. 14:36problematic in certain ways of viewing
343. 14:37Job and Revelation. The issue is that
344. 14:39there's no evidence that Israelite or
345. 14:42the wider Semitic world had this form of
346. 14:45drama or theater in their culture.
347. 14:47Greeks, yes. Jews, not so much. So that
348. 14:52leaves us with a fourth approach, and
349. 14:54it's going to be the approach that
350. 14:56honestly we're going to focus on the
351. 14:58most. is the one that has the most, you
352. 15:00know, I would say credence in my in my
353. 15:03mind is the lyrical approach. So, we've
354. 15:06talked about allegorical, cultic,
355. 15:08dramatic, and now lyrical. Possibly the
356. 15:10most common view held by scholars today.
357. 15:13And one of the things that I want to
358. 15:14emphasize all the time on this podcast
359. 15:16is that there are things that are normal
360. 15:20in school, like theology school or like
361. 15:22Bible school or like seminary, normal
362. 15:25views to have, but that are weird at
363. 15:28church. And part of what we're doing or
364. 15:30trying to do is like bridge the gap that
365. 15:33exists between academia and the church.
366. 15:37We need like a church that's smart. Like
367. 15:40we need Christians who are intelligent.
368. 15:43Okay. I wish there was a more tactful
369. 15:45way to say that, but it's just the
370. 15:46reality. Um, all right, family. The wait
371. 15:49is over. My brand new book, Crushing
372. 15:52Chaos, is out now and available
373. 15:55everywhere books are sold. Literally
374. 15:59today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble
375. 16:01and I signed a bunch of copies at a
376. 16:04physical location. So, you can grab this
377. 16:06book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you
378. 16:09can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or
379. 16:12anywhere books are sold and grab a copy.
380. 16:15If you enjoy reading the Bible from an
381. 16:18ancient perspective, if you understand
382. 16:20that the beauty of scripture is actually
383. 16:23knowing it in context, then you'll love
384. 16:25this book. And if there's any chaos in
385. 16:28your personal life, I think that reading
386. 16:31the Bible from an ancient perspective
387. 16:33can actually help to crush the chaos in
388. 16:35your life. I think this book is going to
389. 16:37be a New York Times bestseller. I really
390. 16:39do. I think we wrote a good one. I think
391. 16:41you should get a copy today. All right,
392. 16:45back to the episode. The most common
393. 16:47view held by scholars today is that this
394. 16:50uh song of songs that we have here in
395. 16:52the Bible is a collection of wedding
396. 16:54songs possibly written by different
397. 16:56authors at different times but then
398. 16:59later brought together in this
399. 17:00collection. It is not meant to be an
400. 17:02allegory is originally Hebrew which
401. 17:05means it's not cultic and is not meant
402. 17:07to be seen as a story. It does however
403. 17:10show how Jewish wedding ceremonies often
404. 17:12reflected on the original marriage in
405. 17:15Eden. This is why the garden setting and
406. 17:18the garden metaphor is used throughout
407. 17:21the poems. Weddings are when man and
408. 17:25woman come together as one flesh in a
409. 17:28reflection of what happened in the
410. 17:30garden with Adam and Eve. That is the
411. 17:32garden ideal where the man and the woman
412. 17:34were naked together with no shame. How
413. 17:37many poems there are is debatable with
414. 17:40some saying there are as little as five
415. 17:42poems in Song of Songs and some scholars
416. 17:45saying there could be up to 34
417. 17:47individual poems right here in Song of
418. 17:51Songs just in eight short chapters. So I
419. 17:55think that the cultic approach has zero
420. 17:57legitimacy. I think that the dramatic
421. 18:00approach has small amounts of
422. 18:02legitimacy. I actually do think that the
423. 18:05allegorical approach has a small amount
424. 18:08of legitimacy, but only in that Yahweh
425. 18:12is seen throughout the Old Testament as
426. 18:14a groom, and Israel is seen in the Old
427. 18:16Testament as a bride. Now, here's what
428. 18:19Judaism and Christianity, well, here's
429. 18:23what Judaism 100% definitely tried to
430. 18:25avoid. In the Greco Roman world, it was
431. 18:28normal for gods to have sex with humans.
432. 18:31Think about like Hercules. Okay,
433. 18:33Hercules is the combination of a god
434. 18:37Zeus having sex with a human, which
435. 18:39creates a demigod named Hercules. And
436. 18:42there's tons of gods in the Greek
437. 18:44pantheon, and that's how they came to
438. 18:46exist is because the gods are really
439. 18:49humans with superpowers. And these gods
440. 18:52have sex with women. the ancient world,
441. 18:54uh, especially books like Luke go out of
442. 18:57their way to make it very clear there's
443. 19:01no like Jesus is not a demigod. So like
444. 19:04there's no world where Yahweh like had
445. 19:08sex with Mary in any way, shape, or
446. 19:10form. And so I would caution anyone
447. 19:13who's trying to allegorize these poems
448. 19:16and make them about Christ in the church
449. 19:20because I would actually say the New
450. 19:22Testament particularly is doing the
451. 19:24exact opposite. Like the New Testament
452. 19:27is trying to separate God the Father
453. 19:30from erotic or sexual activity as much
454. 19:35as possible. And to be honest, that's
455. 19:38kind of gross. Like if we're just
456. 19:40talking about love, then yeah, like yes,
457. 19:44God loves his children and Jesus loves
458. 19:47the church, but this isn't this Song of
459. 19:50Songs isn't just about love. It's about
460. 19:53erotic sexual love. And when we talk
461. 19:56about erotic and sexual love, that is
462. 19:59the kind of love that is relegated to
463. 20:02the realm of marriage. We do not have an
464. 20:05erotic or sexual type of love
465. 20:08relationship with God. We don't. I'm
466. 20:11sorry. Like we don't. Does the father
467. 20:15love us? Yes. Like does Jesus love us?
468. 20:17Yes. But um we should be avoiding all
469. 20:21kinds of ideas that God is somehow
470. 20:25involved with us sexually or erotically.
471. 20:28How people don't see that natural
472. 20:31pitfall when you allegorize a book like
473. 20:33Song of Songs, I don't know. But hey, so
474. 20:36what is Song of Songs actually designed
475. 20:38to do? It's designed to help humans
476. 20:42celebrate this amazing thing that God
477. 20:44made called sex and to put it back in
478. 20:47its original context, which is the
479. 20:48Garden of Eden. All right, I'm going to
480. 20:50give a couple of nerdy nuggets and then
481. 20:52we're going to close this episode cuz
482. 20:53I'm already over time. Okay, I'm gonna
483. 20:56just outline where the poems actually
484. 20:59start and finish. So, the first poem is
485. 21:02going to be from chapter 1 verse two to
486. 21:04chapter 2 verse 7. Okay, that's poem
487. 21:05number one. Poem number two is chapter
488. 21:082:8 to chapter 2:1 17. So, that poem is
489. 21:12pretty short. Okay, nine verses. And
490. 21:15then poem number three is even shorter.
491. 21:19It's chapter 3 verse 1 to chapter 3:5.
492. 21:22And then poem number four, which we'll
493. 21:24really get into tomorrow, is chapter 3
494. 21:28verse 6 to chapter 5 verse one. So it
495. 21:31starts in today's reading, but it really
496. 21:33ends in tomorrow's reading. So we'll
497. 21:35talk about it tomorrow. Couple of things
498. 21:37that I just want to highlight as we kind
499. 21:39of move through this. First, the female
500. 21:42character is the first to speak, which
501. 21:44is really cool. Uh because one of the
502. 21:46things that Song of Songs is trying to
503. 21:47do is trying to get you back to the
504. 21:51ideal which is Adam and Eve as
505. 21:54co-leaders in the garden. It's not till
506. 21:57the fall that we have Adam who's placed
507. 22:00over Eve and and there's a lot going on
508. 22:04there and we don't have time to get into
509. 22:05it. Um but what we have here is that the
510. 22:08woman is initiating. The woman's the
511. 22:11first voice that we hear because it's
512. 22:13not God's goal for men to subjugate
513. 22:16women uh but for women to to be leaders
514. 22:19in the relationship. Also, the woman's
515. 22:21voice is contrasted to Eve's voice.
516. 22:23Whereas Eve spoke and led Adam to sin.
517. 22:27The woman here is going to speak, but
518. 22:29she's going to continually be saying,
519. 22:31"Hey, don't arouse love or awaken love
520. 22:34until it's time." You can tell she's a
521. 22:36little insecure about her darkness. So,
522. 22:39you know, as as being a black male, it's
523. 22:42it's important for me to really exedge
524. 22:44like what's going on here. Well, in this
525. 22:46culture, paler skin was more desirable.
526. 22:51It had nothing to do with race, but had
527. 22:53everything to do with wealth and status.
528. 22:56So, if you were wealthy, you didn't have
529. 22:58to work the vineyards. You you could
530. 23:00stay indoors protected from the sun. But
531. 23:03if you were outside, it the issue wasn't
532. 23:06the darkness of your skin. The issue was
533. 23:08that the darkness of the skin proved
534. 23:11that you were poor or that you were
535. 23:13workingass. Okay? And so she's saying,
536. 23:16"Oh man, I I'm dark. I'm still
537. 23:18beautiful." She's still confident, but
538. 23:20she's like, "Ah, I hope the fact that
539. 23:21I'm that I come from a workingass family
540. 23:24isn't an issue for you." Okay? And it's
541. 23:26not. And he then compares her to a
542. 23:29mayor. Now, what's the This is verse 9.
543. 23:32Now, what's the analogy here? What's
544. 23:34going on is that Pharaoh's chariot
545. 23:37horses would have been pulled by
546. 23:38stallions, male horses. And what she's
547. 23:42saying, what he's saying is that imagine
548. 23:45a mayor in heat, a female horse in heat
549. 23:48walks by, those stallions are going to
550. 23:49go crazy. And what the man here is
551. 23:51saying is like, you arouse me. You your
552. 23:55dark skin ain't a problem for me, girl.
553. 23:56You make me go crazy. Okay? You you it
554. 23:58it's hard for me to have self-control
555. 24:00when I'm around you. I I would say
556. 24:02that's a that's a good thing. That's a
557. 24:04good thing. All right. I don't have time
558. 24:06to go into the rest of these nerdy
559. 24:08nuggets. I got a lot of them here. We'll
560. 24:10pick up with nerdy nuggets tomorrow. But
561. 24:12I will say this uh as as our timeless
562. 24:14truth. Two things in our timeless truth.
563. 24:16We need to be leerary of purity culture.
564. 24:19I had a couple come to me and you know
565. 24:21it was premarital counseling. They were
566. 24:23they were they were engaged, ready to
567. 24:25get married. And I was like, "All right,
568. 24:27like is it hard, you know, like like to
569. 24:30keep your hands off each other?" And
570. 24:31they like, "No, pastor, we're good." And
571. 24:33I went, "Well, that's a red flag." I I
572. 24:35think I threw them off guard by being
573. 24:37very like, "Well, that's weird." Like,
574. 24:40if if you're not so attracted to each
575. 24:42other that it's not hard to keep your
576. 24:44hands off each other, I don't know that
577. 24:46I would get married. You should you
578. 24:47should be struggling. Like, that's good.
579. 24:49You shouldn't be falling into
580. 24:51temptation, but you should you should
581. 24:53actually be attracted to each other
582. 24:54physically. And if you're not having a
583. 24:57problem keeping your hands off each
584. 24:58other, there may not be enough
585. 25:00attraction there for you guys to
586. 25:02actually be in a long-term relationship.
587. 25:04That's just timelessly true. Is if
588. 25:06you're a man and and you're dating a
589. 25:08woman and you guys are Christians, you
590. 25:11should feel like you're a stallion and
591. 25:13she's a marin. You you should feel like,
592. 25:15god dang, man. I'm going to I'm going to
593. 25:18I I got to I got to figure something out
594. 25:20here. Okay. If you're just kind of like,
595. 25:22ah, yeah, we're fine. I'm not tempted.
596. 25:25That's a red flag. You may want to break
597. 25:27up. You may not like that girl. You
598. 25:30know, she may know how to pray and do
599. 25:31all types of things, but you just may
600. 25:33not be attracted to her. And and it's
601. 25:35okay to admit that. Second, our second
602. 25:37timeless truth is that timing is
603. 25:39everything. We're going to get a
604. 25:40repeated phrase throughout the book, but
605. 25:43definitely throughout today's reading,
606. 25:44which is this, daughters of Jerusalem, I
607. 25:46charge you, by the gazels and by the
608. 25:49doe's of the field. Well, gazels and
609. 25:51doe's wait till they're in heat. They
610. 25:53have a time to mate. They don't just
611. 25:55mate constantly all year long. Okay? So,
612. 25:58but I charge you by the gazels and the
613. 25:59doe's of the field. Do not arouse or
614. 26:00awaken love until it so desires. So,
615. 26:03timing is everything. And so if you're
616. 26:0620, I don't know, two, 23 and you're
617. 26:10broke, well then you have no choice but
618. 26:13to control your sexual urges because you
619. 26:16you don't you need to put love to sleep.
620. 26:19You don't need to awaken anything. And
621. 26:21so timing timing is everything. Timing
622. 26:24is everything. And um you don't want to
623. 26:27make a decision about marriage just
624. 26:28because you lack self-control. Timing.
625. 26:32And part of what the wisdom literature
626. 26:33is doing is helping us with timing.
627. 26:35That's what books like Ecclesiastes are
628. 26:37going to do. It's like, hey, there's a
629. 26:38time under the sun for everything.
630. 26:40That's what Song of Song is going to
631. 26:42emphasize. Hey, there's time for love.
632. 26:44There's a time for sex. There's a time
633. 26:46for marriage. And you shouldn't rush
634. 26:49into this just because you're horny.
635. 26:52Like that's that would be foolish. And
636. 26:54that's not just true for the daughters
637. 26:56of Jerusalem in the context of Song of
638. 26:58Songs. That's true for you. That's true
639. 27:00for me. That's timelessly true. All
640. 27:03right, tomorrow we got day 3:27. We're
641. 27:05going to continue our trek through Song
642. 27:08of Songs. We're going to be looking at
643. 27:09chapters 4, 5, and 6. Same time, same
644. 27:11place. I hope to see you right here as
645. 27:14we continue looking at the freakiest
646. 27:16book of the Bible. It's going to be
647. 27:17fantastic. I love you guys so much. Hey,
648. 27:19if you're on a streak, I'm proud of you.
649. 27:22If you are not on a streak, I still love
650. 27:24you. And I'll see you right here
651. 27:25tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for
652. 27:27joining us on the Bible podcast. If this
653. 27:30episode was helpful, how about you leave
654. 27:32a comment, share with a friend, and
655. 27:34subscribe so that you never miss an
656. 27:36episode. To learn more about the show,
657. 27:38head to the bible department.com. We'll
658. 27:41see you right back here tomorrow.